Here I Am

Perhaps a first blog entry is meant to be introductory; I’ll try. I have only been here for a week and already feel as if a month has gone by. Along with a felt month of time is a felt month of information/experience I've been exposed to since I've arrived. In a nutshell, I am working with Fenix (http://fenix.org.uk/). Fenix aims to prepare vulnerable young women (victims of sexual abuse and/or neglect, former sex workers etc.) to enter social and health science professions. This organization works side by side with Procrear, another Bogotà based NGO that focuses on health/social intervention through outreach in vulnerable populations (prostitutes, transvestites, street people). My involvement in these NGO's is a developing process.

Here I sit in the studio I just moved into, thinking this is probably the nicest studio I'll ever live in!  I lived the first week here with my supervisor/director Timothy who showed me the ropes (i.e the best antique/junk shops around Bogotà and where to find organic artichokes) and shared some incredible stories about covering the drug war (he was a photojournalist in the 80's, making the cover of Newsweek and Time before becoming a nurse and a million other things).  Mainly, by living with Timothy, I understood Fenix’s central value: care.

I wrote the next entry last week after my first day observing street outreach.